Gina Carano Coming to the WEC?

ufc prez dana white speaking into the mic

The UFC held a Q&A session in Toronto on Tuesday to promote UFC 94, which will feature a rematch of Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn as the main event. Georges St. Pierre's Welterweight title will be on the line as the two fight at 170 pounds. Both fighters appeared at the press conference, along with UFC President Dana White. There were a number of interesting pieces of information revealed at the press conference, including:

-Mixed Martial Arts fighting is not yet sanctioned in Toronto, but if Dana White has anything to do with it, that will soon be changed. He is going to be focusing his energies on legalizing the sport in Ontario once he deals with a couple of major US markets that are still not yet sanctioned for MMA events, including New York

-White would have preferred to hold UFC 94 in either Toronto or Hawaii, but there are issues in both places that prevent an event from being held at this time

-10,000 tickets have already been sold for UFC 94

-the buyrate from UFC 91 might actually approach the 1.2 million mark that Dana White predicted before the event. He hinted that the early numbers "looked really good", and he didn't back down from his original prediction.

-Dana White is thinking of inviting Gina Carano to fight in the WEC. This is a definite change in attitude for White, and one that is likely entirely motivated by one thing - money. It doesn't take a genius to see that Gina Carano is an extremely marketable name, and any card that she is involved in would draw a lot of interest. White is still holding off of the idea of bringing Carano to the UFC, but I believe that this will change in time. Carano on a WEC card is a great first step, however I think that she should be fighting on the biggest stage in the world - the UFC. You don't have to build an entire women's division around her - however, there is certainly nothing wrong with bringing her in for big fights on a UFC PPV card. A Carano/"Cyborg" fight on a PPV card would certainly help me to put down the dollars to buy the event.

-White is looking to assemble a Canadian team for a future season of "The Ultimate Fighter." I don't understand this. Dana White has been publicly against the idea of the US vs UK season of the Ultimate Fighter. He says that the best fighters should be on the show, and not just the best fighters from a certain country. I can certainly agree with this - however, I'm not sure why White would then want to put together a Canadian team. He seems to be a bit confused on this issue.

-B.J. Penn wants another shot at Matt Hughes. This will probably never happen though. Penn has to fight St. Pierre and then defend his lightweight title against Kenny Florian at some point. Matt Hughes is close to retirement, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him hang them up after his fight against Matt Serra in 2009. Penn/Hughes 3? Not so sure if fans will really be clamoring to see that fight - Hughes hasn't been setting the world on fire as of late.

-White had his lawyer contact Fedor's representatives on Monday in another attempt to lure him to the UFC. The appeal of bringing Fedor to the UFC is obvious - you would immediately set up two massive PPV fights by bringing him into the fold. You could have Fedor vs Lesnar and Fedor vs Couture - both fights would likely do close to a million PPV buys. Easier said than done though.

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